


Northern Lights

by stardropdream



Category: Tokyo Babylon
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-24
Updated: 2013-02-24
Packaged: 2017-12-03 09:58:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 557
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/697039
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stardropdream/pseuds/stardropdream
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Five times Hokuto understood the weight of love.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Northern Lights

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on LJ March 6, 2011.

**I.**  
She puckers her lips up as she views them in the compact mirror, pressing the curve of the lipstick to her bottom lip one more time before puckering again and snapping the mirror shut with a smile.   
  
“Much better.”   
  
“You looked fine before,” her companion says, the foreign girl who smiles, just slightly, when Hokuto tilts her head back and laughs a lilt of a laugh.   
  
“You always know exactly what to say!” She laughs a little more. “You’re going to make me blush.”  
  
She puts her makeup back in her purse and jumps off from the bench. She offers her hand, and her friend reaches out and grabs it. Hokuto tugs, and the two walk down the pathway of the park they were visiting. Hokuto hums and, after a bit of cajoling, her friend joins her.   
  
And Hokuto thinks, surprised by the honesty and the verbosity of which the thought occurs to her— _I care about her._  
  
Hokuto puckers her lips up and goes _HMMM_ very loudly, spins around, and tugs her into a hug.   
  
Friendship was meant to be celebrated, after all.   
  
  
**II.**  
“Good morning,” Hokuto says, louder than is necessary, and delights in the way Subaru scurries into an upright position. His pajamas have penguins today.   
  
Hokuto sighs, grabbing her brother’s hands to keep him from retreating.   
  
“Aaaah,” she sighs. “I’d hoped to see Subaru’s cute hands this morning.”   
  
“Hokuto-chan…” Subaru says, and then laughs a little. Hokuto smiles, widely, and threads their fingers together. Hokuto scoots closer and nuzzles her nose into her brother’s hair.   
  
“Morning,” she says again, voice thick with warmth.   
  
“Mm,” her brother agrees. “Good morning.”   
  
  
**III.**  
“I guess, in the end, I really am selfish,” Hokuto says with a sigh. “I can see it happening and because of me—well. I don’t want to worry you with thoughts like that.”  
  
“It’s not… like that,” Kakyou says, looking up at her, desperate, expression crumbling. “I—I’ll always listen.”  
  
“You’re sweet, Kakyou,” Hokuto says with a sigh, drawing one knee to her chest and leaning against it, resting her chin in her hand. She sighs. “I just… don’t know what to do.”   
  
Kakyou says nothing, but she knows he’s listening.   
  
She slides off the dream-rock she is sitting on and sits down beside him, smiling at him and taking his hand.   
  
“Thanks for listening—I just. It’s good to have someone to talk to.”   
  
Kakyou nods, cheeks a little red when Hokuto squeezes his hand.   
  
  
**IV.**  
Grandmother can be stern, when necessary. But Hokuto knows that they understand each other when, during the chilly months of winter, she sees her grandmother wrap the scarf Hokuto made for her around her neck. The color doesn’t quite suit the shade of grey in her hair, but Hokuto was still learning, and Grandmother always indulged the young children.   
  
  
**V.**   
She touches Seishirou’s cheek, her fingers shaking. She thinks it’d be bad if she got blood on his face, because she doesn’t think it suits him.   
  
“Sei-chan,” she says, chokes on her words because her lungs are filling and her throat is clogging and her eyes are wavering. It’s hard to see.   
  
It’s scary.   
  
It’s okay, though.   
  
Because she knows—she knows that Seishirou has to understand.   
  
Her hand slips from his face. She can’t speak the words, but they’re there—  
  
 _Don’t waste it._


End file.
